No new posts, oh well...

[haradan]

Mmmh, no one has posted anything in weeks. I really hope this is the calm that precedes the storm, and all of a sudden I'll open the site tomorrow and I'll find Al Emmo has finished beta testing and is ready for shipment!    Yeah, right...

Seriously, how is beta testing doing? And BTW, you know, Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine is a name that triggers the idea that there'll be different adventures for Al, like Al Emmo and the Canadian Vampire or so (who was it, btw, I kind of recall somebody was obsessed with you turning Al into a vampire from Canada or something like that. Go figure. ). I mean, are you planning to make Al Emmo a saga like Sierra did with most of their characters?

I know it may sound stupid to ask if you have already planned the future when you haven't  even released your first game, and that many things will depend on how it sells and all of that, but hey, we need to discuss SOMETHING in these forums, right?  

So, after years working in Al Emmo...Would you go for a second chapter in Al Emmo's saga or would you prefer to start fresh with another type of game?

[Aperama]

Mmmh, no one has posted anything in weeks. I really hope this is the calm that precedes the storm, and all of a sudden I'll open the site tomorrow and I'll find Al Emmo has finished beta testing and is ready for shipment!    Yeah, right...

Seriously, how is beta testing doing? And BTW, you know, Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine is a name that triggers the idea that there'll be different adventures for Al, like Al Emmo and the Canadian Vampire or so (who was it, btw, I kind of recall somebody was obsessed with you turning Al into a vampire from Canada or something like that. Go figure. ). I mean, are you planning to make Al Emmo a saga like Sierra did with most of their characters?

I know it may sound stupid to ask if you have already planned the future when you haven't  even released your first game, and that many things will depend on how it sells and all of that, but hey, we need to discuss SOMETHING in these forums, right?  

So, after years working in Al Emmo...Would you go for a second chapter in Al Emmo's saga or would you prefer to start fresh with another type of game?

That's just silly!

... Everyone knows, Chinese vampires, not Canadian. Chinese vampires are those ones who just keep jumping up and down; Canadian vampires are just people who enjoy the cold, sheesh.

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?la ... an+vampire

The results don't lie!

[Erpy]

We're hoping to release a demo of the game within the very near future.

As for the title, we'd like to see how succesful the game is before making any decisions on future projects.

[cathij0269]

Well can I just say that If all goes well with Al Ammo, I hope you line a up a whole mirage of sequels.  It drves me nuts when I really get into a game style, characters, storylines etc and then they just stop making them (monkey Island, Gabriel Knight, broken sword, etc.
 I know it must be difficult competing with the PS and Xbox based  sport and fast cars/loose women/shoot everything that moves style games but there are still plenty of hardened pc adventureres (ones who don't particularly want to shoot things or die every 2 minutes for that matter!).  I've got everything crossed that you will have a huge success on your hands.

[JustLuke]

And I'd like to offer up a conflicting opinion :p

I hate it when publishers release countless unecessary sequels to successful games. The trouble with sequels is that they tend to be tired, unoriginal retreads of the originals. I much prefer adventure games that have a definitive, fulfilling ending that ties up all the loose threads. If you absolutely must develop sequels then please don't churn them out Sierra-style.

[Angelus3K]

I know what you mean JustLuke but if for example Sierra stopped at 4 or even 5 of the "Quest" games then we would of never had KQ6, LSL6, LSL7, SQ5, SQ6 etc etc which are arguably the best in the series.  

[GameDevBrit]

I personally enjoyed how Sierra did make sequels, but they ALSO had a number of different series that one could choose from.  So, even if King's Quest XXXXXXXXXIV was not so great, Quest for Glory XXXXXXXXXVI might have been

[Aperama]

I know what you mean JustLuke but if for example Sierra stopped at 4 or even 5 of the "Quest" games then we would of never had KQ6, LSL6, LSL7, SQ5, SQ6 etc etc which are arguably the best in the series.  

KQ6: Eeeh. Not the biggest fan of the King's Quest genre regardless, but if I was to go with any one game as the "definitive best" it'd probably be KQ3. It just felt a little off to me.
LSL6/7: Okay, this is just WRONG. These were the worst in the series. LSL 2/3 really hammered in the surreal humour without making nigh-impossible situations for Larry to get stuck into ("Hmm... world's (i think, sexiest) girl pageant judge? Nah, not off the wall enough. Let's have him win another game show - and give him a free ride to an exclusive resort. Filled with women. But we should probably calm it down from there, and just give him a luxury cruise...")

... My point made, I think.
SQ5: I preferred SQ4, but they were two very different games, and I feel much the better for the existence of this little gem. (SQ6 never managed to spark fancy with me; it just... didn't have that oomph, you know?)

Long story short: It comes down to who you ask. If I was to pick a 'worst' of each of the multi-multi sequel'd Sierra games, they'd be:
SQ6 (just wasn't Space Quest, sorry)
KQ8 (again... I half expected Connor to be accidentally called Lara at some point mid-game. And where's the royalty, eh? KING'S quest. )
PQ4 (This thing wasn't Police Quest. It was more like an episode of CSI.)
QFG3 (Notice how serious this game is? Gurrrg. QFG5 had more comedy to it than this did, but not by much. QFG was always supposed to be a respectably funny action/adventure, not an action adventure with the occasional pink elephant.)

The problem with sequels, in my opinion, is the onus placed upon them to somehow replace, or fortify, the position of their predecessors; some have done this beautifully (QFG4... well, this game was a perfect fit, I've gotta say. It had lots of comedy, a touch of adventure and believable drama, turning itself into something I really liked) - others do this pitifully (Police Quest 4 changed the onus upon interpersonal relationships between assorted members of the police, to, uhh, some deranged killer and an angry... oh, I don't even want to get into it.) This all said, I enjoyed KQ8, I enjoyed QFG3; they just felt as though they should be a different franchise or something, and this doesn't help in the "sequel" department, if you're with me.

[haradan]

I don't think the problem lies within the number of sequels that you produce, but within the reason to produce them. A sequel should be done when you have found an interesting new adventure for your character, not just for selling.

I really enjoyed KQ sequels up to number 6. And I loved the whole QFG.
On the other hand, Laura Bow's only sequel was a dissapoinment for me.

So even if Al Emmo becomes a million dollar baby, you shouldn't make a sequel just for selling more, but when you really have found a good new adventure for him, just like the hero went to Shapeir to have a GREATER adventure.

I remember I was really hoping Space Quest to get far enough to see Space Quest X: Latex Babes of Estros, that is, until I played SQ6 and then thought SQ10 could actually be very boring.

[JustLuke]

I'd very much like to see Himalaya Studios tackle an RPG/Adventure hybrid in the style of QfG for their next project.

They've already gained valuable experience working on the remake of QfG2, and I know that at the very least GameDevBrit is keen on the series, but I suspect that after QfG2 VGA has been released the team will be too burned out to even consider the idea. Unfortunately.

[Erpy]

Heh, AGD2's favourite game is QFG2.

QFG2VGA was (and still is) a very interesting experience, but also an exhausting one. Adding typical RPG-stuff like bargaining, fighting, stat growth and day/night takes tons of time and the game is the ideal place to witness the "butterfly effect" (change a minor thing in one place and watch things collapse somewhere else) due to its complexity.

While we were in Oakhurst, we asked Lori Cole about it and she said in some way the QFG-games "hadn't been worth it", because the project combined elements from two worlds:

- Workload of 3 games combined
- Bug potential of 3 games combined
- Deadline of one game
- Budget of one game
- Marketting attention of one game (and I'm not talking about KQ)
- Definitely not sales of 3 games either

While it's too early to promise anything or rule anything out, an RPG/adventure hybrid in the style of QFG would probably effectively double the production costs and time. (and probably not the profits)

[JustLuke]

Yeah, they are of course very valid reasons to avoid making an RPG/Adventure hybrid, but I suspect that the gameplay systems could be streamlined to avoid many of those problems.

For example, eliminating multiple classes and focusing instead on a single, well defined character complete with QfG-style stats would eliminate a huge chunk of the workload. By using a more strictly defined player character you would make many of QfG's class-specific gameplay systems redundant and therefore make it possible to remove them entirely; in other words, rather than choosing a thief, fighter, magic user or paladin, you'd have (and, yeah, I know that this is a terrible example) Roger Wilco, space janitor, with specific space janitor/scifi spoof related RPG stats.

It does seem do-able with a bit (well, ok, a lot) of smart planning and, as I said, streamlining.

[Sartori]

I would also be satisfied with a single-class focus, as I'm more interested in the -style- of the game, not so much the multi-class (though that is a high interest point, too).

When I was growing up and playing adventure games, King's Quest VI seemed like a joke to Quest for Glory VGA to me - based entirely on the width of that title. As I mentioned in another post somewhere, the first game in the series makes me feel as though I could almost play it forever, just doing what little tasks there are to do beyond the winning of the game merely because of the way it is presented. RPG-styled stat growth adds so much addictive quality, as well as lasting gameplay. While it probably does complicate and "double" developer effort/work/time, I'm sure it "doubles" the final product, too. I've always felt that Quest for Glory was, in core play, the most superior adventure series in existence, unrivaled. While other games may fight up and compare with the stories and so forth, the gameplay is unrivaled.

While you can keep the choices, it doesn't have to be as wild as Quest for Glory (that's to say as widespread..). Just choices and options.

Yes yes, my 2 cents. :-)